Pentagon study could lead to closure of military schools at Fort Rucker and Maxwell Air Force Base

Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Mike D. Stevens speaks with students at a Defense Education Activity school during a visit to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (Contributed photo/U.S. Navy)

A new Department of Defense-funded study is examining the possibility of closing schools operating on stateside military bases, including ones at Fort
Rucker in Dothan and Montgomery's Maxwell Air Force Base.

DOD has contracted with the Rand Corporation to study 60 DOD
elementary and secondary schools at 15 U.S. installations. The study is
expected to be complete by summer of 2014 and will examine options for
providing education for some 25,000 military children attending DOD schools.

The study will consider a range of alternatives for the
schools, including closing them and transferring students to local public
schools or transferring operation of the schools to the local system. Other alternatives
include establishing a new local education agency to cover the installations or
transitioning to charter schools.

Each school will be assessed separately and factors such as
attendance, performance, graduation rates and cost of operating the schools
will be examined. Fort Rucker Primary and Elementary Schools have a combined
729 students. Maxwell's Elementary and Middle School serves as some 395
students in grades Pre-K through eighth.

DOD spends about $375 million annually to operate its
schools, though most military children - about 85 percent - attend off-base
schools or on-base schools run by local districts. DOD is spending $905,000 for
the Rand study.

Rand officials will meet with school officials, parents,
students and community members as part of the study. The National Military
Family Association is encouraging parents to attend those meeting.

"Our association is concerned about the prospect of military
children losing this valuable benefit," the association said in a written
statement. "We also wonder about the cost to local school districts faced with
absorbing thousands of new students. We urge the RAND researchers to carefully
consider all the consequences before making recommendations that could impact
the educational quality of so many military children."

Pentagon officials told Military.com the study is only
a method for gathering information and no decision has been made on the fate of
the schools.

"The big thing that people should understand is that
there are no preconceived outcomes from this study. We don't have any final
decisions, we don't know what the study is going to find," said Elaine
Kanellis, a DoDEA spokesperson. "I think it's very, very premature to jump
to conclusions before the study is finished."

The study isn't the first time DOD has looked at its
education operations. Miiltary.com reports a 2003 study recommended
transferring the military schools to local systems. Those recommendations were
never carried out due to cost, it reports.